Yes, I know as you advance in level, some of the quests will become long and tedious.

I don't mind that, as long as I can see I am making progress. I can take on 50 to 100 ships, as long as I can see the number remaining slowing going down.

But when I get a quest that tells me to get 10 Whatsits from Green Ranger Ships, I think, okay, about ten ships. No problem.

After taking on seven of them, however, and not a single one has rendered up a Whatsit, it gets very frustrating. I'm still at square one, and have spent an hour basically accomplishing nothing. I'm not sure how many more I have to take on to get a Whatsit. For all I know, the drop rate may be 1 in 100, and I will likely have to defeat 1000 of these ships to finish the quest. Obviously, you would never make the drop rate that bad, but with nothing to go on, your worst fears tend to kick in.

I'd much rather have to gather more Whatsits but with a better drop rate, since I can then feel like I'm making some progress.

Unfortunately its real hard to address such issues when generic references are given.

Different quests have different drop rates, and if KI knows exactly what ones people are complaining about, they can consider making adjustments.

The Bumbaloon meat quest (no more white buffaloons) used to be very stingy, and they adjusted it.
Last time I did this quest (last week) I dont think I had a single battle where I was not rewarded 1, nothing major. No more do you have to "hope" you get a white/bumbaloon on board, they fly the sky, and you can engage them directly (although you only get one on board at a time).

"Some" of the ship drop quests can seem a bit stingy too, but ive seen it both ways.
Ive worked such ship quests with my friends, and had my quest partner get theirs right away, while it took me another 20-30 minutes to fill mine.